A blog for the United States branch of the global Centre for Fortean Zoology

At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

1965: Witness Maurice Masse reports seeing a grounded UFO
near Valensole, France. It makes a whistling sound and he sees two or three
small humanoids standing beside it, dressed in one-piece outfits. Approaching
on foot, Masse is "paralyzed."

Monday, 29 June 2015

2002: Several hikers at Skootamatta Lake, Ontario, Canada, hear strange primate-type
vocalizations lasting 15 minutes, followed by sounds of "something
big" crashing through the nearby forest. While they see nothing, they
attribute the sounds to Bigfoot.

Article on the founder of cryptozoology. I had some contact with Bernard Heuvelmans, as he bought books from me in the days I ran Excalibur Books. He seemed not alone learned, but pleasant.now read on.....

Herewith you will find a small selection of cryptids that have been reported from Iowa.*In 1887 a man named Corner saw what he took to be a buzzard in Taylor County. Further investigation revealed it to be a flying snake which had large protruding eyes. It landed in a cornfield.*A strange creature which showed characteristics of wolverine or bear was reported. The report is undated, but neither creature is supposed to be found in Iowa.*A creature looking like a Chinese dragon was observed by a couple at Burlington. Its body was about 10 feet long. Tantalizingly, the sighting is again undated.

Sunday, 28 June 2015

2004: Residents of rural Eastland County, Texas, wake at 3
a.m. to howls similar to a woman
screaming." In the morning, one finds a partial humanoid footprint near
their camp. Local residents mention several dogs missing in the past two weeks,
and the witness's own dogs disappear two days after the howling incident. They
initially blame "panthers," then decide the partial print belongs to
Bigfoot.

What indeed? Legend has it that it is a giant rattlesnake, to be found in the vicinity of Taos (New Mexico). The name is presumably derived from Spanish vibora, a viper. If you encounter this animal, I should not approach too closely.Speaking of vipers, the only poisonous snake found in Britain is the adder (Vipera berus). It is usually easily recognized by its markings, but what is less well known is that black specimens sometimes occur. The existence of black adders cannot but remind us of a number of television series featuring Rowan Atkinson portraying many generations of the family of Blackadder.

This singular case is one that will surely be regarded as exceptional. J.R. Harding writing in Journal of the Society of Medicine (89/101, 600) chronicles this unusual medical item of which a synopsis is to be found in The Psychologist Vol.28, No. 7.The patient was male and aged 45. The procedure he underwent was to determine whether he had an undescended testicle. On computer investigation of the scrotum, the left testicle was found to be a simulacrum of an horrendous ghost screaming. Testicles with such Lovecraftian overtones are rare indeed. The formation, however, seems to have been entirely natural with no paranormal element: the shape into which the testicle had formed was quite coincidental.

Friday, 26 June 2015

1970: Witness Aristeu Machado reports two small humanoids
standing on the rim of a "Saturn-shaped" UFO near Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, in broad daylight. As he watched, the craft takes off and skims away
over the ocean.

The Dun Cow is one of the most extraordinary beasts in English legend. It originally belonged to a giant in Shropshire, but, having been anatgonized by an old woman, it escaped and wrought havoc throughout the land. It was huge in size with gigantic horns and fiery eyes. Anyone who approached it was doomed.The hero who finally put an end to its depredations was Guy of Warwick. He was supposed to have lived when Athelstan was King of England (924-7). They had a long combat in which blood flowed freely and in the end Guy was victorious.In Warwick Castle what is supposedly a horn of the Dun Cow is yet shown. It is probably in fact the tusk of an elephant.A variant of the legend comes from Lancashire. This says the Dun Cow supplied milk to all comers. A witch tried to get it to fill a sieve with milk, so that she would obtain far more than others. The poor cow died of shock. Another legend from the same area claims the milk of the Dun Cow stopped people from contracting the plague and it was finally buried at Dun Cow Hill. Its supposed rib is shown at Whittingham. It is perhaps a whale's bone.The word dun in this context refers to the color of the animal.This animal seems to have been regarded variously as beneficent and dangerous and it is difficult to tell what lies behind the tradition. Guy of Warwick's popularity in days gone by was not restricted to England. His story had considerable popularity in continental Europe.

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

1974: A witness reports fifteen six-foot-tall robot-like
beings with red lights on their chests floating earthward from a domed UFO at St.
Cyrille de Wendover, Québec, Canada. Reports claim unspecified "physical
traces" found at the scene afterward.

This animal - for animal it appears to have been - must be in the Very Odd category of cryptids reported. In 1975 it was approached by a witness at Oyster Bay, Long Island. It looked like a cloud. It obviously resented the attention of the witness, for it shot a jet of water at him. The only alternative to its being an animal that I can think of is that it was a meteorological phenomenon. Anyway, the witness got wet.Unfortunately, I have lost my source reference for this creature. If anyone out there knows anything about it, I would like to hear.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

2003: Two competitors at a "Frisbee golf course"
in Kenton County, Kentucky, notices a very
unique smell of sour meat and wet hair," then sees a shaggy biped some
nine feet tall emerge from nearby woods.

Monday, 22 June 2015

1982: A teenager reports a Bigfoot sighting from the border
area of Calhoun and Union Counties, Arkansas, claiming that a 7-foot-tall "hairy
man" stole some trout he had left on a line in a swampy river.

This fascinating (I can use no other word) volume contains a plethora of accounts of Little People, human-sized fairies and preternatural beings.Sections include:What the various kinds of fairies found in Europe and among people of European descent in the United States are;large numbers of fairy/little people sightings.dangerous figures of faerie, such as giants, ogres, wildmen and even mothmen;discussion of how fairies could fit into the scientific paradigm;contains list of species of European fairies.Every student of the paranormal, folklore and cryptozoology should have a copy.Available from all the usual Internet outlets and from the publishers, Skylight Press.

This has been reported from Namibia. For those with a limited knowledge of geography, Namibia is a country in south-west Africa, largely desert, sparsely populated and with a large hunter-gatherer population, usually called Bushmen, but I think there is a "politically correct" term used for them now, the San.now read on....

Sunday, 21 June 2015

2009: A a 19-year-old college student was driving near
Rhinebeck, N.Y., swerves to avoid a bag in the middle of the road, then glances
at his rearview mirror to see "someone or something" run out to grab
the bag. Turning around, he sees a hairy biped 7 to 7.5 feet tall retreating
with the bag.

2003: A resident of rural White County, Arkansas, reports
growling from the woods behind his home and sees "something" moving
through the trees, walking with "a rolling motion." He reports his
sighting to the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization.

Animals and Men is the official magazine of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. It features cryptozoology, natural history, paranormal and Fortean topics. It is a full magazine, illustrated in color, with 83 pages.Where can I get this? I hear you ask. Do I need to pay a large subscription? Not at all. This magazine is online ABSOLUTELY FREE. All you have to do is click onto www.cfz.org.uk and gorge yourself on information. click on this link....

Friday, 19 June 2015

1815: Captain Elkanah Finney watches a sea serpent through
his telescope, off the coast of Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, later writing: "I
then had a good view of him through my glass, at the distance of a quarter of a
mile. His appearance in this situation was like a string of buoys. I saw
perhaps thirty or forty of these protuberances or bunches, which were about the
size of a barrel. The head (the front part being visible above the water) appeared
to be about six or eight feet long, and where it was connected with the body
was a little larger than the body. His head tapered off to the size of a
horse's head….What I supposed to be his under jaw had a white stripe extending
the whole length of the head, just above the water. While he lay in this
situation, he appeared to be about a hundred or a hundred and twenty feet
long."

The origin of the word zebra is obscure. Some say it comes from an Italian word, some favor Portuguese cebra. Generally it is ascribed an African origin. But it may owe its name to another creature altogether.In medieval and Renaissance Spanish works, mention is made of a creature called the zebro. Gray in color, its muzzle was dark and it had a black stripe on its back. In the name of this creature do do we have the origin of zebra?If so, we may ask what this now extinct creature actually was. A recent theory is that it may represent a population of Equus hydruntis, which is thought to have become existed 12,000 years ago. Perhaps it didn't.

While it is not the policy of this website to focus on politics or religion, we at the CFZ are particularly concerned with preservation of the environment, so the Pope's encyclical Laudato si issued yesterday impinges on our area of interest.The encyclical blames Global Warming on shortsightedness and human greed. It says over use of fossil fuels is one of its causes. It condemns destruction of the environment.Such a stance is likely to be rejected by certain politicians and businessmen, but, in the perception of the present writer, his arguments are certainly valid and it behoves the industrialized nations to help the poverty-stricken ones cope with the results of Global Warming.The text of the encyclical is available online as are comments from various news media. In addition, there is an article in Wikipedia.It may be added that political and scientific issues have a moral element, so the Pope is not stepping outside his appropriate area.

Thursday, 18 June 2015

2014: A rural resident of Talladega County, Alabama, reports
"two sets of eyeshine" reflecting a flashlight beam outside his home.
One set of eyes is approximately seven to eight feet above ground level, the
other about six feet high. He reports the event to the Bigfoot Field Researchers
Organization the same day.